Kamonyi District Vice Mayor in Charge of Economic Affairs, Mr. Uzziel Niyongira, has announced that there is hope for the Amayaga region to regain its lush greenery thanks to the ‘Green Amayaga’ project.
Mr. Niyongira made this announcement during a meeting held at the Kamonyi District headquarters on Thursday, September 19, 2024.
The meeting was aimed at reviewing the achievements of the ‘Green Amayaga’ project, which is nearing completion and focuses on restoring biodiversity in Kamonyi District.
Among the notable achievements of this project are its significant contributions to environmental conservation, the restoration of degraded land, erosion control efforts, and extensive tree planting initiatives.
Additionally, the project has provided pigs to vulnerable households in the Amayaga region to help improve their economic status. Families have also been supplied with eco-friendly stoves and gas for cooking.
In an interview with ICK News, Mr. Niyongira emphasized the critical need for afforestation and biodiversity restoration in the Amayaga area, which had been severely affected by excessive heat, deforestation, and the general degradation of its ecosystems.
He added that there is now renewed hope that the Amayaga region will regain its greenery, based on the progress observed so far.
“The project is well-advanced, as we are now in the third phase, and the outlook is promising. You can already see the emergence of the biodiversity we aimed to restore—forests, trees, and ecosystems are being revitalized. We are optimistic that the Amayaga region will once again flourish, which is the ultimate goal of this project,” stated Mr. Niyongira.
He also revealed that the Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA) plans to launch another initiative focused on environmental protection, which will expand to areas not covered by the ‘Green Amayaga’ project.
Additionally, Kamonyi District is preparing to collaborate with the Rwanda Forestry Authority (RFA) on a project that will be implemented across 12 sectors of Kamonyi District. These efforts are part of the broader strategy to build on the successes of the ‘Green Amayaga’ project.
It has been nearly five years since the launch of the ‘Green Amayaga’ project in Kamonyi District, an initiative spearheaded by REMA in 2020.
The goal was to increase forest cover and restore biodiversity in the Amayaga region, which spans four districts: Kamonyi, Ruhango, Nyanza, and Gisagara.
As of October 2024, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), REMA officially launched the project in the Amayaga region. The project, with a six-year budget exceeding Rwf 31 billion, is aligned with the first phase of Rwanda’s National Strategy for Transformation (NST1).
The project is being implemented in partnership with the Rwanda Forestry Authority (RFA) and aims to plant eight million trees, including fruit trees on 25,000 hectares, to promote agroforestry. In total, 263,000 hectares of land are expected to be rehabilitated.
Rwanda has set a national goal of maintaining 30.4% of its total land area under forest cover.
Furthermore, the project is designed to benefit 1.3 million residents in the districts of Gisagara, Nyanza, Kamonyi, and Ruhango. Approximately 7,500 households are expected to receive small livestock, and 60,000 households will be provided with eco-friendly cooking alternatives to reduce reliance on firewood by at least 25%.